Rx euthanasia   theilluminatorofmacon, ga   A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH Can you safelybet your lifeon what hemay think?  Could you be signing yourdeath warrant?By Kara LaneImagine that while driving on an interstate highway, the intoxicated driver behind you suddenly thrusts your car into a collidsionwith on-coming vehcles. You are unconscious, 60 years old, have no medical insurance and the driver is uninsured. EmergencyRoom doctors determine that you wil need extensive, expensive surgery,treatment and hospitalization to restore your abilities to independentlyfunction.Hospital staff contacts your family, They will ask whether you have executed a living will declaring your refusalof life-sustaining treatment in the event you are unable to speakfor yourself. What verbalized or unspoken factors will influenceyour physician's and family's decisions -- your age, your resourcesfor paying for treatment, the predicted quality of your life, theburdens of caring for you, or more sinister motives as inheritingyour property or collecting your life insurance ? Will the physicianfully disclose treatment options with your relatives, when he knowsthat neither you nor they have resources to pay for treatment?People who fail to ponder these questions whenthey elect other people to make life or death decisions for them may beplaying a lethal game of medical Russian Roulett. These are amongthe myriad concerns raised by organizations rallying against liberalizationof right-to-die legislation. ECONOMICS AND POLITICS: "CHOOSINGBETWEEN THE DISASTEROUS AND THE UNPALATABLE"Economist John Kenneth Galbraith's definitionof politics is that "It consists in choosing between the disasterousand the unpalatable". We have been taught to value human healthand life as sacred. Technological advances are increasingthe length of our lives.Health care issues, concerning the increasingproportion of elderly and uninsured, are at the pinnacle of currentpolitical debates,On the other hand, taxpayers are resistingthe mounting burdens of financing healthcare for the indigent. Health care professionals are wary of becoming defendants in malpracticelawsuits if they deny life and health sustaining treatment. Hence,policy makers are caught in a crossfire of conflicting interests. Albeit unpalatable , the current solution for balancing these conflicingdemands is to "allow" people to "elect" to die.My position is that older Americans should notbe sacrificed for economic and political harmony. Instead, healthcare costs should be cut by preserving health, by reducingincidents of preventable deprivation-caused diseases resultingfrom pervaisive ageism and age barriers to employment.YOUR RIGHTS TO CONSENT TO EUTHANASIAThe courts extended the rights of competentpeople to refuse medical treatment to persons who are unable to speak forthemselves. Required is evidence of the persons' consent. Acceptableevidence may be in two forms: (1) Living Wills or Advance Directives, wherebycompetent individuals have left instructions about their refusal of life-sustainingtreatment or(2) Durable Power Of Attorneys, by designating an agent, a trusted proxy, to decide if their lives should or should not be sustained.Discordant with the growing moral and legal acceptanceof euthanasia are myriad unresolved questions about the voluntariness ofthese decisions. Such questions are raised in a June 1996 articleby the Ohio Right to Life Organization stating. "A massive push is nowunder way to ensure that many people with a supposed poor ?qualify of life'? not only with disabilities that are congenital but also with disabilitiescaused by illness or injury ? are ?allowed' to die against their will". QUESTIONS ABOUT 'VOLUNTARINESS" AND"QUALITY OF LIFE" DETERMINATIONSTwo pivotal factors -- "voluntariness" and "qualityof life" -- should be explored: How can a normally healthy, adequatelyfunctioning, but medically unsophisticated individual -- based only possiblefuture circumstances ? give informed consent to end life? Sinceinformed consent is essential to valid consents for medical treatment forpreserving life, ought it not be equally critical to valid consentsfor ending life?The presumption that a legal document, executedby a legally competent person, is in itself proof of the prerequisite informedconsent shuts out questions of social or family pressures resulting ina conceived duty to consent.Also eluded is the validity of consents in casesof misdiagnosed, elderly, sedated, indigent or uninsured patients whenhealthcare professionals, guided by economic priorities, short circuitdiscussions of available treatment options by focusing on exaggerated grimprognoses of their patients' conditions. DEAD PEOPLE CAN'TSUE, BUT THEIR RELATIVES CAN AND DO.We should not overlook liability issues relativeto "quality of life" determinations, When favorable quality of lifeprognoses depends on prompt, accurate diagnoses and efficacious medicalintervention, failure to adequately account for these factors maytrigger issues of malpractice.Numerous malpractice law suits have madehospitals and doctors constantly on guard.Dead people can't sue, but theirliving relatives are costing hospitals and doctors trillions of dollarsin legal fees, settlements, damage awards. and skyrocketing malpracticeinsurance premiums. Conceivably, doctors can substantiallylower their risks of costly law suits by tayloring diagnosesto plausibly fit poor quality of life prognoses -- the requiredjustification for euthanasia.HOSPITAL AND DOCTORS -- THE PRIME BENEFICIARIESOF LIVING WILLSMy telephone calls to the Admission Office staffersat the two largest hospitals in Macon, GA yielded information about thesignificance of living wills; The Coleseum Hospital employee reported that, as part of the admissions procedeures, patients are askedto sign a form that asks if they have a living will. If theyhave a living will, they are instructed to bring it to the hospital.At The Medical Center of Central Georgia, the hospital that serves the poor, the employee reported that anadministrator brings living will forms to patients' rooms and assists themin completing them. When we consider the probable states ofmind of many of these newly admitted, anxious, sick or injured people, whose neruological systems may be numbed by sedatives and pain killers, the opportunities for abuse are frightening.Health care professionals know that if they euthanizepatients in defiance of their relatives' objections or without consentof the patients, they would be inviting wrongful death suits, evenmurder charges. They must be sure that there can be no provableevidence of disagreement by the patients or among family members.Doctors, hospital spokespeople, elected officialsand judges are unlikely to publically endorse euthanasia as a means ofdisposing of indigent patients or of covering up physicianor hospital staff blunders. The patients' consent andlegally valid reasons must support these decisions. In an inestimablenumber of cases, questions of whether the consents are truly volunataryor whether the justifications reflect purely medical and compassionateconcerns may never be answered.Nevertheless, armed with euthanasia consentsof their patients, free of objections from relatives, errant hospital CEOs and doctors may comfidently dispatch their liabilityalong with their patients to the morgue -- supposedly in compliance withtheir patients' wishes.Indeed we are sliding on an increasingly slipperyslope.SUGGESTED COUNTER MEASURES1. The safestcourseis to refuse to sign living wills, and to inform as many people aspossible when you expect to be or have been admitted to a hospital. A predictably effective way to handle hospital staff , who bring theseforms into patients' rooms, is to SHOUT " Go away you are wastingyour time, I will not consent to being euthanized.".2. Demand that yourlife be preserved and to be availed of all treatment options for restoringabilities to function, regardless of your ability to pay for them. Make thisknown to as many people as possible, including your doctor and hospital.3. Include your desirethat any person or organization that can prove medical malpractice inyour case be given standing to sue involved parties in your behalf, whetherthey are related to you or not. I would also state the percentageof monetary awards of your case to which they would be entitledif you are alive or dead,DISCLAIMERThis article is intended onlyas general information,and should not be consideredlegal advice for any specific case. Forlegal advice about your specificsituation, you should consult an attorney.REFERENCES AND LINKS TO FURTHERINFORMATION ABOUT EUTHANASIAEUTHANASIA.COMhttp://www.euthanasia.com/This huge website offers a wealthof links and information abouteuthanasia, assisted suicideand living wills. INVOLUNTARYEUTHANASIABy O'Sheen, Daid N. Ph.d, Balch, Burke J. J.D.,Ohio Right To Life Organization,June 5, 1996http://www.ohiolife.org/LINKS TO THE ILLUMINATOR OF MACON,GAHOMEPAGELinks to many interesting articlesabout ageism, age discrimination inemployment, Social Security,government ageing programs and more.THE ILLUMINATOR GUEST BOOK ANDPUBLIC FORUMPOSTYOUR COMMENTSVIEWCOMMENTS OF PREVIOUS VISITORSCONTACTTHE ILLUMINATORReturn to top ofpagevar site="sm5health" |
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